Chapter 147: Rule 147: Make use of rules
```
He looked at the woods a few meters away, pointing at a pile of strange mushrooms and asked the officer in his thirties, "Cao Wei, my brother, what is that?"
There lay an unidentifiable animal carcass, which was covered with brightly colored mushrooms.
Cao Wei said to the young man who approached, "Commander Qing Huai, that is the corpse of a ring-tailed monkey, and those mushrooms growing on its body are Mushroom Bud Bacteria. Once matured, the Mushroom Bud Bacteria will explode, scattering spores that enter the animal's skin with the force of the blast, eventually leeching off the host's body to nourish the growth of new Mushroom Bud Bacteria."
Because the force of the explosion isn't very powerful, the injured animals don't die immediately.
Therefore, they continue living with those spores attached, until the spores completely drain the nutrients from their bodies.
And the dangers of this Contraindications hinterland are not just limited to a few Mushroom Bud Bacteria and their spores.
Cao Wei said, "Commander Qing Huai, let's begin."
As he spoke, Qing Huai gestured to the people behind him.
A few soldiers emotionlessly escorted several ragged wildland people forward, including elderly, middle-aged, and a little girl.
Qing Huai took out a dagger from his waist, placed it at the little girl's Achilles tendon, and said calmly to the other wildland people, "Begin, just as we've previously agreed upon."
The little girl had been crying all along, shouting for her grandparents and parents not to listen to this devil.
Yet the wildland people acted as if they hadn't heard her and stared at the hinterland of the Taboo Land with ashen faces.
The little girl's grandfather walked into the hinterland, turned his back after untying his pants, and urinated on the ground.
The next second, he began to tremble all over; countless ants suddenly emerged from the ground below, swarming over him to gnaw at his living flesh.
Qing Huai then turned his gaze to the elderly woman and the middle-aged man next to him, signaling them to proceed.
The middle-aged man whispered, "Mom, do it, for the sake of Nan Nan."
After that, the elderly lady, trembling, picked up a handgun and walked into the hinterland, firing a shot at the ground.
In an instant, the ants that had been feasting on the little girl's grandfather turned in unison and rushed toward the old lady.
The middle-aged man, holding his wife's hand, walked over trembling, and after exchanging a look, they embraced each other tightly.
The woman cursed, and then was devoured by the ants.
The man watched in agony as his wife screamed and died, then spat on the ground.
He too was soon enveloped by the swarm of ants.
In just five or six minutes, nothing but skeletons remained of everyone.
Qing Huai, with a smile, turned to the little girl, "I promised your family that if they did as I said, I'd let you go. Now, be on your way."
With that, he released his grip.
The little girl wailed uncontrollably but didn't run away; instead, she threw herself onto the pile of skeletons, calling out for her relatives.
The ants had not yet fully dispersed, and sensing the presence of their prey, they once again climbed onto the little girl's body.
The soldiers lined up in the back watched everything indifferently, their gazes utterly unfazed.
Qing Huai said to Cao Wei, "Cao Wei, my brother, the rules we've gathered are indeed true."
No use of firearms, no profanity, no spitting anywhere, no relieving oneself just anywhere.
The Federal Soldiers captured a family from the wildlands simply to verify the authenticity of the rules they had learned.
Cao Wei glanced towards the depths of the hinterland and suggested, "Commander Qing Huai, if we need to continue moving forward, I suggest we take a moment to rest."
Qing Huai nodded slowly, "Rest in place," he said.
He paused, then added, "Cao Wei, my brother, you've worked hard."
"Not at all, Commander, just doing my duty," Cao Wei replied before heading towards the rear of the group.
As an officer of the Federal Second Group Army and a rather prominent name, Cao Wei earned his C-Class rank at a young age.
In every inter-army competition, Cao Wei was the valedictorian; in practical combat exercises, he was among the best.
Having participated in 17 wildland suppressions, he had enough military decorations to cover a chest.
His rank steadily rose to that of a major, a clear trajectory to the top.
However, two years ago, Cao Wei suddenly got drunk and caused a disturbance during an exercise, which led to military discipline and a demotion, assigning him as an aide-de-camp in a platoon.
At that time, many were puzzled, wondering why such an outstanding Cao Wei would commit such a blunder when his future seemed so bright?
And even with Cao Wei being a direct descendant of the Qing's Family's fourth branch, having significant power within the Federal Second Group Army, why did no one protect him?
Only two weeks later, with Qing Huai's graduation from Tinder Military Academy and his assignment as the chief officer of the field platoon where Cao Wei served, did everyone understand that it had all been preparation for Qing Huai.
It turned out that all the soldiers in this field platoon were members of the Qing's Family direct lineage, and had been manoeuvred into the platoon by various means from the Qing's Family.
Cao Wei and the other soldiers bore no resentment. They were well aware of one point: Qing Huai's branch was one of the most influential factions within the Qing's Family, and Qing Huai was the one with the most potential within that branch.
Although the conditions were tough at the moment and there was criticism from the outside world, as long as they survived the struggle of the 'Shadow', their prospects were just around the corner.
One day, if Qing Huai became the Qing Clan House Master, these temporary losses would become insignificant.
Besides, Qing Huai at least addressed him as 'Cao Wei, my brother.'
The truly elite scions of the conglomerates were not as arrogant and difficult to get along with as one might imagine.
At this moment.
Over a hundred soldiers stood silently, receiving Cao Wei's order, they each took out a sealed bag from their packs and proceeded to relieve themselves right where they stood.
They maintained a serious demeanor, controlling the situation with steady, forceful arms, to prevent any urine from splashing outside the sealed bags.
```
Minutes later, everyone carefully tied up the two seals of the sealed bags and, after collective gathering by each combat team, buried them all together in the woods.
During the process, no one spoke, no one conversed.
When conveying orders, Cao Wei spoke extremely slowly, they had to learn to think first, then speak.
Before saying each phrase, they needed to consider whether they might say something wrong.
Explore more adventures at empire
These people, who carried no firearms and had specially prepared sealed bags,
clearly understood certain unspoken rules before entering the Taboo Land.
However, just as the burying was completed, a sudden rustling erupted from deep within the Taboo Land, as if a predator was quietly approaching.
Everyone looked towards the direction of the sound, but they discovered nothing.
"Battle readiness," Cao Wei said in a cold voice.
No sooner had his words faded than the face of a soldier turned purple, and he struggled to utter, "Save me."
The other soldiers looked at him but could not understand what had happened.
The stricken soldier slowly collapsed to the ground, his eyes reddened as though soaked in blood.
No one rashly approached, only Cao Wei slowly walked over to him and gently pried open the soldier's mouth with a dagger, revealing that the inside of his mouth and his tongue had all ulcerated.
He then cut open the soldier's trouser leg.
He saw that the soldier's leg had turned black, and the wound was oozing a dense, fleshly, blurred fluid, as if corroded by sulfuric acid.
Cao Wei observed attentively, "This is..."
Before he could finish, another soldier not far away collapsed to the ground with the same symptoms, and one after another, in just a few seconds, more than ten soldiers were struck down!
Other soldiers wanted to save their comrades, but their friends were dying too quickly for them to do anything in time.
Some looked at the screens in their hands, which showed thermal imaging scans from the mecha-dog brains they carried, but strangely enough, the scans detected no abnormalities.
At that moment.
The rhythm of death paused briefly.
"Count the numbers!" Cao Wei demanded angrily.
"Reporting to the commander, the death toll is 24... Commander, the entire sixth row has perished!"
A squad consisted of 8 people, a row had three squads, making a total of 24 people.
"This is bad," Cao Wei suddenly looked up at Qing Huai.
Qing Huai said in a cold voice, "Someone is using the rules to silently assassinate us. Others have entered Taboo Land 002!"
With that, Qing Huai took the lead in running towards the direction from which they had come, his movements extremely swift.
Clenching his teeth, Cao Wei said to the still-living field soldiers, "Follow in tactical formation, prepare for battle."
They had come to realize what was happening. If it were monsters or plants in the forest attacking, their comrades wouldn't have died so neatly, exactly an entire row gone.
But which rule had the enemy exploited?!
Under Qing Huai's lead, the field unit marched back the way they came at full speed.
Along the way, soldiers kept dying as if some unstoppable force loomed over them, like the arrival of the Grim Reaper.
After a few kilometers, Qing Huai suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked silently at the excavation pits in front of him, not saying a word.
In those unearthed pits were individually sliced open sealed bags.
Someone had forcibly made them break the "not to urinate or defecate everywhere" rule!
Before this, who could have imagined that someone would use such a despicable tactic?
Nobody had thought previously that the Taboo Land would attribute the breach to the original owner of the urine once the sealed bags they buried were cut open by others!
The enemy not only knew the rule against relieving oneself anywhere but also understood it much more profoundly than they did.
But this was just too vicious!
"The enemy has not gone far; they left only after seeing us coming," Qing Huai analyzed calmly, because there was one pit that had only been half excavated.
At that moment.
"Who?!" Cao Wei suddenly looked further into the woods.
In the distance, there was a figure silently observing them, making a throat-cutting gesture.
Then, he vanished swiftly into the darkness.
...
Going live at midnight!
Just a few more hours left!
There will be a speech at 10 p.m., it's optional to read—just some thoughts and emotions about writing this book, you can skip it if you don't like such content.
Then, the explosion at midnight!
For those not using the QiDian APP, you can download it and search for "The Naming Technique of the Night," where you can see the new chapters first thing tomorrow night! (Translation for friends with the means: please support the original version~)
...
Thank you to Yizhe SAMA, Wind Crashing through Leniency, Venus's Love, Daxing Northwest, A Yuan Yuan Yuan, and Feather Guest for becoming the new allies of this book, achieving a hundred allies milestone for the new book!
May the bosses be generous, and may the bosses make a fortune!